Benjamin 17 months

Joel and I did a little reminiscing today on Ben's 17 month mark. A year ago at this time, Ben was starting to crawl. I looked at 'old' pictures from a year ago and older.... I still can't believe he's ours!! Such a perfect little package.

A few fun things to note lately. For starters, Ben has been trying to dress himself. At first it started with shoes and then Joel's shorts...and now he's trying to put his jacket and shirts on. Last night he spent ten minutes before bed trying to put a shirt on....so persistent yet so patient with himself. As with everything else, he's very adamant about doing it himself unless he asks for help. He never asked for help with the shirt. He just kept working at it, talking it out the whole time. We have a video of part of it and if you didn't understand English, you would easily think that him and I were just having a nice chat the whole time.

Lately he's been very into play doh, coloring and stickers. He colors every day at Karen's and then more in the evening. Today he was pretending like he was making "O's" and "S's" and stars. He kind of was but it was totally by chance :) He likes it sometimes if we sit with him while he works at his little table. If he's been doing it by himself for a while, he'll come grab one of our pant legs and tug us to the table in his typical earnest, serious manner.

Even though the weather has been crummy lately, Ben reaaalllly likes to go for walks. So, we bundle up and head out. He likes to go and go and go....slowly. He stops to look at every thing. Sprinklers, moss, tree roots, ants, flowers....etc. And that's just what he stops to examine in a span of ten feet! But we love it. I'm happy to go exploring with my guy. And if Joel is home, it gives us a nice chance to chat while Ben explores. Ben likes to wave and say "hai" to the passing cars. I love seeing people smile when they see him and wave back :)

I wish I could capture Ben's personality and describe it perfectly in words. I always want to remember him at this sweet stage. Determined. Secure. Solid. And Like I always say, he's so serious. But it's not a sad seriousness...it's more of a focused, honest, calm, quiet seriousness. He's not always like that, though. He certainly has his fun!! He does silly things all the time. How about Yogurt in the hair to make a show? Tickle mom and dad for a laugh? Hide behind the curtains? Gleefully chase Emma?  Jump as hard as he can on his bed with the biggest smile imagineable? Or when I pick him up at daycare, he squeals and runs around and acts so silly. Or today on our walk, he was  happily singing "the leaves are falling down" while trying to skip (he actually looked like he was partially cripple or something, haha). Yup, he's pretty serious but also tons of fun. He gets excited about lots of things but there is always a mellow undertone. As I type about that trait,  it makes me think of my great grandma Edna. She told me once that one of her secrets in life was to always try to keep a patch of peace within her even during the most un-peaceful times.